Editor’s Picks: Dawes, Detroit Improv and more

08.03.2017

The Jewish News

Lynne Konstantin

AUG. 4: DAWES
The L.A.-based Dawes — powered by singer, guitarist and songwriter Taylor Goldsmith, his brother, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, bassist Wylie Gelber and Tay Strathairn, keyboards — has a vintage folk sound all their own, especially on their newest album, We’re All Gonna Die, produced by former bandmate Blake Mills. See An Evening with Dawes at the Majestic Theatre. $25-$30. Majesticdetroit.com.

AUG. 6-7: JEWS ON PBS
Set your DVRs: At 9 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 6, PBS’ Great Performances presents Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy, in which Joel Grey (shown, in Cabaret) narrates a look at the role Jewish composers and lyricists played in creating the modern American musical. Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, Barbra Streisand, Fanny Brice, Marc Shaiman, Oak Park-native Andrew Lippa and more appear in clips or interviews. Same time the next night, singer-songwriter-pianist-composer Ethan Bortnick, 16, performs Generations of Music, filmed at the Washington Pavilion in South Dakota with a 60-piece symphony, a choir of more than 100 people and joined by guests Peter Yarrow and Rufus Cappadocia. WTVS-Detroit Public TV; dptv.org.

AUG. 9-13: DETROIT IMPROV FEST
Paul F. Tompkins, Mama’s Boy, SODA, the 313 (former Second City Detroiters living in L.A.), Susan Messing (shown) of Messing with a Friend and more will perform and host workshops during the Detroit Improv Festival at various venues around town. Detroitimprovfestival.org.